Patient periprocedural stress in cardiovascular medicine: friend or foe?

Stress, a disruption of homeostasis, is an unavoidable part of everyday life. In medical procedures, stress profoundly affects both operators and patients. Although the stress reaction has evolved to aid survival of physical trauma, it may also be harmful, by aggravating the baseline medical condition and/or creating new stress-related medical problems.

Stressful Life Events, Cognitive Biases, and Symptoms of Depression in Young Adults.

Although the link between stressful experiences and depression has been supported in numerous studies, the specific mechanisms of this relationship are still unclear. Cognitive theories of depression postulate that the influence of stress on depression may be modified by cognitive factors. The aim of the present study was to examine the interplay between negative life events, cognitive vulnerability factors, and depressive symptoms.

Cortisol Awakening Response, Self-Reported Affect and Exam Performance in Female Students.

The purpose of the study was to find whether there were differences in cortisol awakening response (CAR) between a neutral day and an exam day in a group of female students and to explore possible relationships between CAR, self-reported affect, and exam performance. A group of 25 female students took samples of their saliva using Salivettes at the moment of waking and after 30 min. They then described their affect using the PANAS scale.

Social Anxiety, Affect, Cortisol Response and Performance on a Speech Task.

Background: Social anxiety is characterized by increased emotional reactivity to social stimuli, but results of studies focusing on affective reactions of socially anxious subjects in the situation of social exposition are inconclusive, especially in the case of endocrinological measures of affect.

Sampling And Methods: This study was designed to examine individual differences in endocrinological and affective reactions to social exposure as well as in performance on a speech task in a group of students (n = 44) comprising subjects with either high or low levels of social anxiety. Measures of salivary cortisol and positive and negative affect were taken before and after an impromptu speech.

[Self-concept, alkohol expectancies and drinking habits in high school students].

Aim: The study was aimed at finding relationships between self-concept, alcohol expectancies and drinking in the group of high school students. It was expected that a higher level of alcohol consumption was related to lower self-concept and positive expectancies concerning alcohol use.

Method: The group of 229 Polish high school students, 92 men and 137 women, recruited in schools, participated voluntarily in a cross sectional questionnaire study.